| Wamco KW-105 Minitron Display (KW-105S) | |
| Written by AnubisTTP on 2008-06-25 |
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The Wamco KW-105 is a nearly modern implementation of minitron display technology, and is also incredibly compact. This display is truly minuscule, the digit height being only 8mm. The display's tiny package leaves no room for a decimal point indicator, and decimal points were provided by a separate thin minitron display inserted into the display stack. Fortunately the display's 8 pin base uses standard pin spacing, allowing sockets to be easily made from SIP pin header strips. Wamco still manufactures these displays for use by the highly conservative military avionics industry.
For many years collectors believed the KW105 and it's variants to be the smallest minitrons produced, though it is now known that several obscure displays were produced with digit heights below 8mm. These smaller displays almost always have weird voltage requirements or complex hard-to-find sockets however, making the KW-105 arguably the smallest practical choice for the electronics builder.
Wamco KW-105S minitron display, normal operation.
Various different minitron displays for size comparison. Clockwise from right; IEE FFD21, 3015F (silver plate version), 3015F (black plate version), Wamco KW-104EW, Wamco KW-104NS, Wamco KW-104S, Wamco KW-105, Wamco KW-105AL.
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